Legal recognition of gay families could improve outcome for children

If you attended a Gay Pride event last week, you undoubtedly saw something that has increasingly become associated with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movement: families. While the fact that children are being raised by gay men and lesbians is not new, what is noteworthy is the rising number of open gay and lesbian families. This is largely a consequence of the LGBT political movement of the last two decades, coupled with the so-called "gayby boom." Indeed, 2010 census data show that about one-quarter of same-sex couples in the U.S. are raising children in their households.

Gay and lesbian families draw socio-political and academic debate, particularly when it comes to how well gay and lesbian parents fare compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Most recently, University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus published a study that claims to make this comparison - and found gay families lacking. Regnerus' findings run counter to the majority of academic research on gay and lesbian families, which has found few significant differences in child outcomes.

Although the data and analysis are rife with weaknesses, Regnerus' study has nonetheless been taken up by conservative groups and the media as evidence of subpar outcomes for children raised by gay parents. The methodological issues have been well-documented across many media outlets (such as The Washington Times and The New York Times), so we will not rehash them all here. Suffice it to say that the children who had "gay parents" in the analysis were primarily children of divorce and spent little or none of their childhood in a household with a same-sex couple. Regnerus found that they had worse outcomes than children raised in heterosexual married households.

Is it surprising that individuals from families that experienced instability due to divorce would fare worse than those who lived in the socially and legally privileged family structure of heterosexual marriage? Of course not. Regnerus himself acknowledges that "the most significant story in this study is arguably not about the differences among young adult children whose parents have had same-sex relationships and those whose parents are married biological mothers and fathers, but between the latter and nearly everyone else. Contexts of instability - whether in gay or straight households - appear suboptimal for children's healthy long-term development." We agree. It is bewildering, then, that the story largely being told within the article itself, and by some facets of the media, is that of poor outcomes for children of gay parents.

Let us, for a moment, ignore the methodological issues as well as prior research, and assume that children of gay parents have worse outcomes than those of heterosexual married parents. We suggest that the effect of larger structural forces in producing these outcomes should be considered, rather than simply an argument that "gay men and lesbians make bad parents."

In our current work, we are interviewing gay and lesbian parents across the nation to examine whether and how marriage and family laws play a role in their parenting decisions. Our interviews have revealed the importance of legislation for children's perceived family stability. One interview in particular exemplified this idea. Residing in California, this family already possessed many of the legal rights of married couples due to domestic partnership. Nonetheless, their adopted daughter would pretend to marry her two mothers in a ceremony with plastic rings, telling them: "Now you're married, you can keep your kids forever."

To this child, like so many, marriage is symbolic of stability; this stability is not just for the adults' relationship, but the child's relationship to the parents as well. Without a legally recognized marriage, children may view their family as "lesser," and are likely to experience both real and perceived challenges as a result.

Children of gay and lesbian parents are particularly vulnerable in cases where their parents' relationships dissolve. Many of our subjects described this vulnerability, observing that they had no recourse if their partner walked out on their child. Given that the ability to acquire and enforce a child support order is limited for those who are raising a child with a person of the same sex, there are resulting economic ramifications for children of gay parents. As in the case of marriage, this lack of legal and social protection can suggest to the child that their household is not recognized by the state as a "real family."

Our interviews have emphasized one thing: Gay men and lesbians are going to raise children, even in legally hostile environments. And if instability produces worse outcomes for children, then social science data would suggest that our investment should be in correcting the structural inequalities that produce such outcomes.

Baumle is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Houston and Compton is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of New Orleans. The opinions expressed within this article represent those of the authors, and not the University of Houston or University of New Orleans.